Many of the men in the Fathers, Families and Healthy Communities Demonstration Project have at one time been the type of people they wouldn’t have wanted their own children associating with.

But now, on Monday nights, they come to a conference room in the Dawson Technical Institute on the South Side to learn the least technical of things: how to be better men, better fathers and better nurturers — so they can have a relationship with their children.

G. Sequane (pronounced SAY-kwan) Lawrence is the director of the project, which opened the doors to its first class in October 2011. The men who participate are considered “members” and are noncustodial fathers. Lawrence said it’s important to note that they come of their own free will.

“The stereotype is that low-income fathers don’t care and they’re recalcitrant,” Lawrence said. “But that’s not what we’re finding. They haven’t been coerced to be here, and they’re not here by court order.”